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Liberals say they want women to be taken seriously in the arenas of government and public policy. They claim they want women to be judged based on their ideas, not their physical appearance.

Unless, of course, those women are conservative.

Case in point: the continued leftist mockery of GOP Rep. Katherine Harris, who is serving her second term in Congress. Before serving in Congess, she was Florida’s secretary of state. Before that she was a state Senator, an IBM marketing executive, and a vice president of a commercial real estate firm. She has a Master’s Degree from Harvard University with a specialization in international trade and negotiations.

Despite her credentials, she has been repeatedly ridiculed–not for her ideas or record, but for her physicial appearance. It started back in 2000 during the re-count controversy in Florida, when numerous columnists compared Harris to Cruella de Ville, the villain in “101 Dalmatians.” The Washington Post published an entire article lampooning Harris’s make-up.

This week, after an unremarkable appearance on Hannity & Colmes, the attacks became even more vicious and sexualized:

– Screenhead: “We have no idea what to call Katherine Harris and the Harris jiggletwins on Fox last night…”

– Waveflux.net, “This allegedly mature woman, this former Florida secretary of state, this Senate candidate, working her admittedly impressive twin assets to best advantage – and with astonishing artlessness – on a high-profile public affairs show.”

– Small Precautions, “It’s something like what you’d expect from a homely college girl, three drinks brave and coming onto the captain of the football team in a bar. She’s kinda moving back and forth, standing at an angle so you can get a good sense of the rack…”

Even some conservatives piled on. This Free Republic thread has been pulled, but you can take my word for it.

As Cheri Pierson Yecke noted in an op-ed late last month, feminists are strangely silent about such attacks:

Their silence speaks volumes about their convictions and partisan leanings. After all, it is mainly conservative women who have been the victims of this sort of media slashing. Sad to say, with few exceptions, the circling vultures are left-leaning women.

Has our culture become so shallow, and our sensibilities so numb, that we will accept from adults the sort of vicious behavior that we would never accept from our children?